98 THE AFRICAN TRADER.

engaged in bringing numerous articles on board
the schooner—arms and ammunition, and cutlery,
and Manchester goods, and farinha (the meal on
which slaves on board ship are fed), and cases
which I found contained slave shackles. There was
no secret indeed made about the matter.

The schooner having taken her cargo on board,
the other vessel sailed away while we stood
towards the coast. The carpenters were busily
employed in fitting an additional deck in the hold,
and Paul told me that it was called the slave deck,
aud that the slaves we were to take on board would
be seated along it, packed close together side by
side, and that they would thus be kept during the
whole run to the Brazils, or wherever the schooner
was bound with her hapless freight.

‘You see what this vessel is,’ said the officer
who had spoken to me in English, ‘We have
saved your life, and must exact a promise from you
not to appear as a witness against any one on
board should you at any future period be called on
to do so. Let me advise you indeed. not to take
notice of anything that occurs on board and it will
be the better for you. We do not wish to harm
you, but there are those among us who hold human